Forensic techniques in blood macules: an updated review

Abstract

Bloodstain forensic techniques rely on the ability to examine a crime scene and collect physical evidence to enable analysis. Often, investigators use ultraviolet and infrared lights to detect subtle bloodstains that are not visible to the naked eye. Once identified, these bloodstains are collected for further analysis. Bloodstain analysis involves comparing the patterns of the bloodstain to other patterns at the crime scene. Thus, an updated systematic review of techniques and methods employed in the analysis of blood macules at crime scenes was conducted. Ten studies were identified between 2020 and 2022, corresponding to publications indexed in the Scopus and Scielo databases and master's theses. It is concluded that the application of different methods related to science such as mathematics, physics, electrochemistry is the proposed way to improve criminalistic techniques.